


Staying the Same

by Noteventhat (Facialteeth)



Series: Rarepairs [8]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alcohol, Alec is Long Dead and Mentioned Briefly, Bi-Curious Ragnor Fell, Drunken Vomiting and then Kissing, Embarrassed Ragnor Fell, First Kiss, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, I'm completely ignoring that Ragnor is dead in the show, M/M, POV Magnus Bane, Post-Canon, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:14:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26374798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Facialteeth/pseuds/Noteventhat
Summary: Ragnor had been strictly attracted to women for as long as Magnus had known him. Which was why Magnus found himself a little taken back when centuries into their friendship, Ragnor admitted he was curious.Magnus and Ragnor find themselves in a new chapter of their relationship. Though, somethings never change.
Relationships: Magnus Bane & Ragnor Fell & Catarina Loss, Ragnor Fell/Magnus Bane
Series: Rarepairs [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1915978
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Staying the Same

Ragnor had been strictly attracted to women for as long as Magnus had known him. It wasn’t an insecure attraction- one where Ragnor insisted he loved women in a way that implied there was something more to the story. It was a very secure attraction. Ragnor simply wasn’t interested in what the male body had to offer him. He’d made that obvious more than once.

Which was why Magnus found himself a little taken back when centuries into their friendship, Ragnor admitted he was curious. Admitted, perhaps murmured under his breath half drunk and without prompting.

Now, most warlocks eventually became curious. Even if it was a fleeting curiosity, it was one that you found yourself indulging in eventually if you lived as long as they did. To some, it was to quell boredom. To others, it became a regular occurrence.

Still, Magnus found himself surprised when Ragnor said this to him. For as long as Magnus had known him, Magnus hadn’t imagined Ragnor as someone who could change very much. He was always the same grumpy warlock Magnus had always known and somehow, Magnus had imagined he always would be that way, more or less anyway.

His sudden admission was evidence that clearly, Magnus had been wrong. Ragnor was still a person capable of change, even if he had seemed the same to Magnus for so long. In a few hundred years, he could become a completely different person. He could become someone that Magnus no longer got along with, though Magnus cringed at the thought.

Magnus offered to hook Ragnor up with someone, so he could ‘experiment’ but when he offered, Ragnor just groaned, glared at him and refused to speak of it again. Clearly, overwhelmingly, Ragnor was still the same person Magnus had always known.

It didn’t come up again for a while. Nearly a decade actually. The world threatened to curl in on itself and explode, as it always did and they’d gotten so wrapped up in that for so long that Magnus didn’t have time to pester Ragnor about if he’d meet a guy yet.

When it did finally come up again, it was of Ragnor’s own accord, something that surprised Magnus even more. For Ragnor to mention it once in his lifetime was astounding but for it to come up _twice_? That was unheard of for Ragnor. He liked to ignore his own feelings, like they didn’t exist at all and for him to even speak a word of something he was feeling went to show that he’d been thinking about it a lot.

“I met a boy,” he announced unceremoniously.

Magnus paused at that, it taking a few moments for his slightly tipsy mind to realize what Ragnor was implying and why he half sounded like he wanted to choke his words back down again. “I hope you mean you met a man,” Magnus said after a moment. “I thought we agreed our cut off was eighteen.”

Instantly, Ragnor was glaring at him, looking very much like he regretted speaking at all. “Of course, I meant a man!” He snapped, snatching his drink off the table so he could sullenly turn away from Magnus and glare off into the distance rather than looking at him. “Never mind,” he snapped, leaving Magnus to sigh.

Magnus bumped his shoulder against Ragnor’s own, causing his companion to huff in aggravation. “Tell me about this man,” Magnus said after a moment had passed and much to Magnus surprise, Ragnor did.

He didn’t give Magnus any juicy details at first but he told Magnus the basics: he’d met a man that he didn’t find absolutely revolting and this man had the unique type of charm that it required for Ragnor not to turn him away- mainly that he approached Ragnor, asked if he wanted a drink and wasn’t terribly annoying.

Ragnor _had_ wanted a drink and the conversation that followed hadn’t been horrible either. So, when the man asked Ragnor to come back to his home with him, Ragnor found himself saying yes.

Ragnor had clearly intended to stop the story there but Magnus pressed him, “Did you hook up?”

After a moment, “No.”

“Did you make out?”

Ragnor’s silence answered the question and in the silence, Magnus laughed. “Was it good?” More silence. “You have to tell me if you liked it or not. Was he horrible?”

“He was not horrible,” Ragnor mumbled into his glass.

Later, Magnus asked him if he’d call the man again. Instantly, Ragnor had scrunched his face up and said no. It was a one time thing. An enjoyable thing but a one time thing nonetheless.

It didn’t come up again for nearly another decade.

“How do you get people to hook up with you so easily?” Ragnor asked one night, when he was far too drunk to mind what he was saying.

Magnus knew that Ragnor had his fair share of luck getting people to hook up with him. He also knew what Ragnor was really asking. Men. Ragnor wanted to know how he got men to hook up with him so easily.

Magnus waved his hand vaguely in Ragnor’s direction, the liquid in his glass sloshing dangerously with the motion. “Men are easy,” Magnus insisted. He was just as drunk as Ragnor and too intoxicated to be around the bush about what Ragnor was asking, even if he knew the conversation might last a little longer if he was a bit more subtle “You just have to be blunt. If they’re not out or they don’t know they’re interested, they’re not going to come up to you first. _You_ have to go up to them and if they turn you down-” Magnus spun his hand in a wide sweeping gesture, his drink once again threatening to spill over. “You just move on. Go find someone else. You just have to be persistent.”

Across from him, Ragnor frowned into his glass. Magnus himself was a very proactive flirter. He was very good at initiating the conversation and getting his interest across. Ragnor was good at flirting too but he kept that ‘I don’t care’ vibe close to the chest. Ragnor was more inclined to sit somewhere and look mysterious until you approached him and it worked rather well for him but Magnus wasn’t quite sure it would work with men the same. They might think he was just some angry straight man sulking at a bar.

“Or you go to a gay bar,” Magnus added. “You might have better luck with people approaching you there.”

That’s how, already rather drunk, Ragnor and Magnus ended up going out to a bar Magnus promised was wonderful. Ragnor did end up leaving with someone that night and Magnus was happy for him but it did kind of defeated the point that he went home with a woman.

It was a similar kind of night, filled with drinking, that things changed for the first time. Magnus had known Ragnor at that point for well over six centuries and their relationship had changed a couple of times. The first century they’d known each other, Magnus was young and he’d hardly even known what he was. Ragnor took him in. Ragnor showed him what he was and how he could control himself. Ragnor was more of a father to him than anyone else ever had been but Magnus grew up quickly and for the next couple of centuries, Ragnor had chased him into trouble and cursed him as he dragged them back out.

Eventually, Magnus got old enough to get himself out of the messes he created and that had been when their relationship had mellowed. Ragnor was more akin to indulge Magnus in whatever stupid thing he wanted to do, knowing Magnus could do something about it if things went wrong.

They’d stayed stagnant that way for centuries. Ragnor complained about him and pretended he’d rather not have Magnus around but he still let Magnus in when he showed up and he didn’t put too much of a fight up whenever Magnus wanted to do something fun.

But that night, they were just drunk enough that stuff started to shift. Magnus’ last real lover, Alexander, had died nearly two centuries ago. Ragnor himself had a few flings but nothing that ever lasted more than a few weeks of hooking up and nothing that ever repeated more than once with a man.

At that point, Magnus supposed they were both a little deprived. Ragnor liked to pretend he didn’t seek meaningful connection with people but Magnus knew he craved it, even just a little less than the average person. They were both a little hungry for something the one night stands couldn’t fulfill and maybe that’s why it happened.

Now, Magnus couldn’t really say who initiated it. Ragnor would insist, when he would finally talk about it out loud at all, that Magnus had been the one that leaned in and kissed him. Magnus was pretty sure Ragnor had made it clear he was interested and that’s _why_ he had leaned in to kiss him but they had both been just drunk enough that perhaps, neither of them really knew who started it.

All Magnus knew was that they’d made out that night and with Ragnor’s lips against his, Magnus’ mind shifted a little. Ragnor was objectively attractive but Magnus had never been attracted to him. Every time he’d glanced at him, it had been glazed over with the film of knowing that Ragnor and him would never be anything more than what they were, friends, family, however you wanted to describe that connection two immortals could feel after so long.

Kissing him for the first time, Magnus realized that Ragnor was hot. He was just a bit taller than Magnus, which was the perfect height. His green skin and his light hair framed his dark eyes and his horns beautifully. He kept himself in shape but not too much so, not enough to remind him of Alec.

It also didn’t help that Ragnor, apparently, was pretty good at kissing. That was of course was before he pulled away and turned to vomit. That rather ruined the nice moment they were having but they were so drunk it didn’t really matter. If they went back to kissing soon after, with Magnus not even minding that Ragnor tasted like throw up- well, Magnus would keep that to himself.

He didn’t want anyone to think his standards were that low.

The next morning, Magnus woke up with a vague hangover. He remembered everything about the night before and he’d gotten up with a little pep in his step, ready for Ragnor to wake up and be absolutely disgusted about what they’d done. Ragnor would mock him, lament about how he’d never done anything more horrible in his life and that he couldn't believe Magnus let him do that.

Magnus would mock him, insisting that Ragnor hadn’t been complaining the night before. Finally, Ragnor would storm off, telling Magnus that if he ever told anyone they’d kissed that he’d never speak to him again. Magnus would half believe him, so he’d keep it to himself for a while until it inevitable came out of his mouth one alcohol induced night.

Except, that wasn’t what happened at all. Ragnor woke up and when he walked out into the kitchen, he wasn’t glaring at Magnus like Magnus had expected. Magnus had spun, ready for their mocking repertoire to kick into full effect. Instead, he’d been met with the sight of a Ragnor who would not meet his eyes and who crossed the kitchen to his things, quietly insisting he had things he had to get done before he was leaving as quick as he’d appeared.

Magnus had expected Ragnor to be a little embarrassed but not… like that. He hadn’t expected Ragnor to leave without even looking at him, with his tail metaphorically between his legs. That had been odd because Magnus had assumed whatever had happened between them was a one time thing, something brought on by alcohol and nothing more but if that were the case, Ragnor wouldn’t have left without being able to look at him.

That’s when Magnus wondered for the first time if perhaps, that had meant something else to Ragnor. Anyone else might leave it alone but Magnus was not anyone else. He showed up on Ragnor’s doorstep the very next day, assuming twenty four hours was a sufficient amount of space to give him.

Ragnor had glared as he opened the door but there was something else in that look that Magnus didn’t recognize. There was something a little ashamed.

Magnus pushed his way inside anyway. It was a couple of minutes later, sitting across from each other with Ragnor still not looking at him, that Magnus tried to ask about it. It turns out that was harder than Magnus had thought it would be because Ragnor didn’t want to say a word about it.

Magnus finally left a few hours later, leaving behind a simple, “Fine but it wasn’t bad, if that’s what you’re worried about.” They didn’t acknowledge it out loud again for the next couple of decades but they did indulge each other another couple of times, both of them feeling half like the whole situation was too odd to be real and half not caring.

It was something secret that they kept to themselves, something they didn’t even talk about when they woke up. Around everyone else, even around each other, things were as normal as they could be. Nothing about their dynamic had changed but every once in a while, they’d fall into bed together and that’s just how it was for a long time, until suddenly, things changed again.

It happened gradually. He and Ragnor had fun together but outside of the bedroom, Ragnor was Magnus’ same grumpy companion, the same one he’d always been. There was no sexual tension between them. There was nothing and that in of itself didn’t change. Them being so apart just logistically stopped making sense.

Magnus had long stopped being the High Warlock of Anything and he hadn’t thought he’d take another official position for a while but when he was offered another High Warlock position across the country, he couldn’t help himself but take it. It was over coffee one of Ragnor and he’s early mornings that Magnus proposed Ragnor come with him.

“It just makes sense,” Magnus explained. “Why not come? What else are you doing? I’ll die of boredom if I go alone. You have to come with me.”

And so, Ragnor had and after that, they lived together. They hadn’t lived together since Ragnor had still viewed Magnus as a child and this time, things were very different between them. It was after that things started to snowball. Magnus should have expected it but it had caught him off guard, even though he was the one taking place in it.

It was easy living with Ragnor. Magnus had known Ragnor longer than anyone else in the world. He felt more at ease with Ragnor than he did with anyone else and living with him felt like living with his best friend again, his best friend that he could kiss at night if they were both up for it.

Slowly, things started to shift. The dynamic they had that made things just work between them never left. Ragnor still mocked him and rolled his eyes. Magnus still managed to get them into trouble but in the quiet moments of their life, they curled together a little closer.

After a hard day, Magnus found himself resting against Ragnor’s side while the older warlock read. Magnus found himself taking comfort in Ragnor’s touch, in a different kind of way than before. When Ragnor had a rough morning, Magnus found it easy to wrap his arms around him and hug him as Ragnor rolled his eyes and secretly enjoyed it. They started falling asleep together, accidentally on first and then after that, not so accidentally at all.

Even the nights when they didn’t fall into bed making out, they would lay side by side, taking comfort in the sound of each other’s breath. If Magnus was working, he’d crawl into bed long after Ragnor had gone to sleep, pressing himself into Ragnor’s arms before he passed out. If Ragnor stayed up reading, Magnus would wake to the bed shifting as Ragnor crawled inside.

Whatever was going on between them stayed pointedly undefined. Neither of them told anyone and neither of them tried to find words for it when they were alone. Looking back on it, Magnus supposed they were together the whole time. Neither of them brought anyone else home. It would have felt wrong to do so and that should have been the sign that they were together but neither of them felt the need to say that.

Besides, they were immortal. They had forever to finally get comfortable enough to label whatever they had as anything. There was no rush at all. That didn’t mean Catarina wasn’t enraged when she walked in and found them curled together, asleep.

She wasn’t mad at them for being together but she was mad they’d both failed to tell her what was going on with them, something that according to Catarina, was important. That morning, they’d all sat in Ragnor and Magnus’ living room with Ragnor glaring at both of them, Magnus trying to explain to Catarina without speaking what was going on with them and Catarina, feeling endlessly betrayed that they hadn’t told her.

Finally, Catarina had said, “If you make each other happy, that’s all that matters.”

At that, Ragnor had rolled his eyes. “I regret moving in with him everyday,” he had insisted. “He’s the most insufferable partner I’ve ever had the displeasure of being around.”

Magnus rolled his eyes back, launching into a lengthy explanation of how old age had made Ragnor dry and how he was the only thing that still brought light into Ragnor’s sad life of torpidity.

Catarina herself had smiled at that. A lot had changed since he and Ragnor had met and a lot of things were still new between them but Magnus didn’t think somethings would ever change. No matter what, Ragnor would always curse Magnus’ existence and Magnus? Well, Magnus knew he only meant it a little bit.


End file.
